Thank you for enduring my vacation posts. I'm not sure how people feel about reading these - sometimes I feel like it's a brag fest. "Look at my amazing vacation!" But honestly, these are some of my favorite posts to look back on, and I enjoy documenting trips in blog format because it's easy to include photos and captions.
So bear with me!
And now... Look at my amazing vacation!!
When our time in Saint George ended, the families headed off in their various ways. We opted to extend our vacation a little longer (which is what we did last year as well) and headed to Kanab. But first, we stopped in the good old city of Hildale, Utah.
If you're not familiar with Hildale, it's one of the two cities (Colorado City, Arizona being the other) that make up Short Creek - historically known for being a polygamous community.
We've driven through before, but we recently watched Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey (a documentary series about Warren Jeffs) and wanted to go again.
Hildale has changed a lot since Warren Jeffs was convincted. The FLDS Church has dwindled significantly in membership, and Hildale, while still highly populated with polygamists, now has a much greater "gentile" population.
The Parry Lodge had an excellent hot breakfast buffet included with our stay.
Warren Jeffs' compound - now a sober living facility that helps people transition out of the polygamist sect
A closer look
Zion's Most Wanted Hotel (it is also attributed to being the former mansion of Warren Jeffs and I'm not sure how it differentiates from the compound above - but they are two different facilities)
Former FLDS meeting house - no longer in use. I believe it stopped being used when Warren Jeffs began moving his people to the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Texas. Supposedly someone has been trying to have this building converted into a community center. It's really hard to find reliable and current information.
The view from a park in Hildale where we stopped to stretch our legs for a while
From Short Creek, we headed to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes. For pretty much our entire marriage, Scotty's mom has asked us if we stopped at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes any time we pass through Southern Utah. We can drive home from California in the middle of the night, and she'll still ask, "Did you stop at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes?"
So this time, for her sake and ours, we stopped at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes.
Fortunately there was cloud cover, and the heat was mild. This place could have been incredibly miserable.
We rented a sand sled and hiked out to a big dune to play. Walking in sand is brutal. Climbing sand dunes is brutal. But we knew this going into it, so again, thank heaven for the cloud cover.
Atop the dunes
Scotty, Zoe, and Eva on the sled
Trying to get Eva to hike back out of the sand dunes
Trying to get to the dunes, I felt like one of the children of Israel wandering in the desert for 40 years, but for me it was only 12 minutes
I make it sound awful, but it was actually really fun. It was just a lot of work. It would have been a whole different experience if the sun had been shining on us or if it had been windy, though. We got very lucky with the weather!
These flowers are popping up all over the dunes, and they are a nice touch to break up the orangey desert landscape
That night we stayed in Kanab at the Parry Lodge. It was quite old but very charming.
Eva and Zoe in the pool - rocking the goggles, as always
The sign outside the Parry Lodge
The main lobby/office at the Parry Lodge
An old car outside of the motel
Our rooms - each room is named after an old movie star or celebrity
The lock on the bathroom doors
("Mom! I don't know how to work this lock!")
My kids' first experience with a glass ketchup bottle
("I've only seen these in movies!")
Our only complaint about the motel was that the bed springs were really noisy. No funky business required! If you so much as wiggle a toe, you'll wake up the whole family.
The next day we headed to the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. We stopped by there last year, but they didn't have any tour openings, so we just petted some cats and went to Angel's Landing (not the Zion one). This year we looked a few weeks in advance at the tour schedule, and it was still pretty booked, but we were able to snag the last spots in the Wild Friends and Parrot tours.
Sanctuary photo op
Some of the rescued animals we saw
(this breed of turtle only pees twice a year)
Cats - I started to want one, but then one pooped while we were in there, and that fixed me
From Kanab we headed to Duck Creek Village. We stopped for lunch at Martin's Corner Deli where we were greeted by this handsome fella:
The meal cost us a small fortune. I twitch when I think about it.
Then we went to the Duck Creek ice cave.
I would really like to have an ice cave to hang out in during the summer (another ice cave we've been to is Niter Ice Cave - both caves were very muddy).
We also went and explored Mammoth Cave, which is a series of lava tubes.
Zoe (blue shirt) is about to go in one of the five entrances
Zoe, Eva, and Scotty inside the cave
After Mammoth Cave, we were all pretty tuckered out, so we decided to end our adventures and head home. While we were driving in the mountainous area from Duck Creek to Cedar City, we saw three badgers crossing the road. This was such a funny occurrence because just last week, we were talking about how none of us have ever seen a badger!
Gratefully, we made it home safely and found all our chickens and our garden alive and well!
Babies alive!
Sunflowers beginning to bloom!
I love going on vacation, but I also love coming home. There's something about being away from my normal routine that makes me appreciate it more.
But don't be thinking I wouldn't leave on vacation again tomorrow if given the chance!
(Someone pointed out that I had the chance to go on vacation again via Youth Conference which started today. Haha! No. That’s not vacation. I didn’t go to YC).
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